“You believed his wife was dead all along?” Rodney turned and stared at Cindy point blank.
Cindy shivered. Did they think she’d been playing around with a married man and had something to do with the killing? The thought of it horrified her. What else could he be insinuating? Whatever it was, Rodney’s sudden change in manner threw her off balance. She looked back at him boldly.
“Shelly’s been missing for six years,” Cindy said abruptly. “Mattheus described years of intense searching for his wife to me. And, as we well know, it’s highly unusual for someone to be found alive after all this time.”
“Certainly is,” said Alex, brushing his shaggy hair back off his face. Although Alex had a low key quality about him, he’d also been listening intently, not letting one detail slip by.
“Sooner or later, Mattheus had a right to go on with his life,” Cindy added.
“Of course he did,” said Alex.
“Sounds like you care a lot about Mattheus,” said Rodney.
“Of course I do,” said Cindy, as the wind blew up and the waves tossed more swiftly onto shore.
Mattheus looked up at her for a moment as their eyes touched, then quickly parted.
Alex stepped a bit closer to Cindy. “These kinds of situations are very complicated,” he said softly. “You understand we have to follow every possible trail.”
“Of course I do,” said Cindy. He was reaching out to her, trying to soothing her and she appreciated it. “And I have some thoughts of my own about this as well,” she continued. “Did you guys check the Abused Women’s Shelter where Shelly worked?”
Alex nodded, “We did.”
Rodney interrupted then, wanting to take back control of the conversation. “We talked to Shelly’s supervisor Victoria. I believe I mentioned that Victoria was the one who identified her body. Everything at the Shelter was in order. Shelly did a fine job, people like her, they respected her work. The people there are horribly upset.”
“Who else did you talk to there?” asked Cindy, “co-workers, clients, residents?” It was an unusual place to work and Cindy was curious about it. “There has to be lots of information you can get about Shelly from the community there.”
“We didn’t really feel that was necessary,” said Alex, trying to meet Cindy’s glance. “We’ve been focusing on Anthony.”
“We’ve got the right guy,” Rodney broke in again, “just have to make this air tight. Clean up any possible avenue that could lead away from him.”
Mattheus stood up tall at that moment. “I want to know more about this guy,” he said, his jaw protruding.
“Fill him in, Alex,” Rodney said.
Alex spoke up clearly and simply. “The guy is in late thirties, from the Caribbean.”
Mattheus seemed startled. “Where in the Caribbean?”
“Jamaica. He’s a great musician,” Alex went on, “played sax in some of the best bands in town. Also cut a couple of albums.”
“I couldn’t care less,” Mattheus grunted.
“Seems like he and Shelly moved in together about two years ago,” Alex continued.
“Two years?” Mattheus could barely manage to say it.
Cindy swallowed hard. How awful for Mattheus to have to know that Shelly'd been alive all this time and living with another guy.
“What was she doing down here before that?” Mattheus was digging in.
“Not much for a while, then she got this job at the Shelter,” said Alex.
Mattheus rubbed his foot on the mud.
“Sorry about this,” said Alex, coughing a little.
“Just keep going,” said Mattheus.
“The guy Shelly shacked up with was known for doing drugs,” Alex continued. “Not a dealer, a user, like lots of the musicians down here. He’s a good looking dude, who gets tons of attention from the ladies. Makes sense that Shelly wouldn’t like that. Some people told us they would fight about it at parties after the concerts. Seems like she was the possessive type.”
Mattheus stared at them, his eyes boring like coals through the darkness. “Shelly wasn’t a possessive type. She was never jealous. She felt secure.”
“When she was with you,” Rodney interrupted.
“This is nuts,” said Mattheus.“I don’t believe a word of it. It doesn’t ring true.
“These are the facts,” said Alex.
Cindy remembered how Mattheus always said how the facts were different for different people. They meant something else, depending on who saw them.
Mattheus’s face grew tauter. “So you ‘re convinced this guy killed her?”
“They’d been fighting a lot before she turned up dead. Neighbors heard them and so did others. He was seen running from their house late at night the day before the killing. His alibi is shaky. He said he was with a cousin down at the other side of town. The cousin confirmed it, but we found out that this cousin wasn’t home at the time of the murder. She was at a nearby club partying. Anthony wasn’t there,” Rodney laid out the alibi, blow by blow.